[Waxeloquent]

Originally Posted by amazer2013

Hey waxeloquent, Thank you for the pointer about hiring driver at munnar. Im driving to munnar next month and can surely use this information. Can you please share the contact info? I tried sending PM but for some reason it says you have blocked pms. I might hire from munnar to udumalpet. Thanks

Sorry Amazer, have PMed you the driver detail. Cheers

[paulprv]

Originally Posted by amazer2013

Hi All,

I'm visiting Palani and Munnar on 15th Nov 2013. For my onward journey, I'll be driving to Munnar from Palani side. So I'll have to take the Udumalpet - Marayoor - Munnar route.
But my return journey would be directly to Bangalore. Can anyone kindly suggest which would be a better option out of the below routes:
1. Munnar - Marayoor - Udumalpet - Dharapuram - Karur - Salem - Bangalore
2. Munnar - Chinnakanal - Theni - Periyakulam - Batlagundu - Dindigul - Salem - Bangalore.
I would not mind taking slightly longer route for better roads.

There was a landslide on the Munnar Theni road a few days ago. It held up traffic for quite some time. The Marayoor Udumalpet route does not have landslide problems, but you might drive past wild elephants.
If you do not mind narrower roads than the 4-lane, I have another route I can suggest:
Munnar - marayoor - Udumalpet - Coimbatore - Annur - Sathyamangalam - Dimbam - Chamraj nagar - Kollegal - Kanakapura - Bangalore
Except Coimbatore - Annur, the traffic is very low on this route, and it is a lovely drive. You can maintain 90-100km speed most of the way, adn it is a rather beautiful drive. Road condition is good and there are no tolls.
The 4-lane from Salem to Bangalore is in pretty bad shape at present with a lot of diversions and the road surface is pretty lousy, not to mention heavy traffic.
Food... you will get at Sathyamangalam, then at Chamrajnagar. Not many eateries on this route. It should take you 5-6 hours from Coimbatore to Bangalore, so if you have lunch at Coimbatore, you can be in Bangalore for dinner, with a tea break on the way.
Happy driving!

[rameshnanda]

Originally Posted by paulprv

Udumalpet - Coimbatore - Annur - Sathyamangalam -

No need to go to Coimbatore too. Best route would be Udumalpet-Palladam-Avanashi-Sathyamangalam. Coimbatore traffic is best avoided.

[Waxeloquent]

Originally Posted by paulprv

The 4-lane from Salem to Bangalore is in pretty bad shape at present with a lot of diversions and the road surface is pretty lousy, not to mention heavy traffic.

I returned to Bangalore from Kerala on 31 Oct via pollachi-perudurai-salem-hosur. Yes there are a couple of minor deviations/diversion, otw the 6 lane work is over almost. The traffic is heavy only from Hosur and with Diwali long
weekends are over. If one does not mind the toll, this Salem-Dharmapuri-Hosur-Bangalore is a good one. Even the
Krishnagiri-Hosur 6 laning should be done in 1H 2014. The flyover near Leyland Hosur with checkpoint is the major
bottleneck as far as I experienced. Cheers

[ksm]

Originally Posted by amazer2013

Hi All,

I'm visiting Palani and Munnar on 15th Nov 2013. For my onward journey, I'll be driving to Munnar from Palani side. So I'll have to take the Udumalpet - Marayoor - Munnar route.
But my return journey would be directly to Bangalore. Can anyone kindly suggest which would be a better option out of the below routes:
1. Munnar - Marayoor - Udumalpet - Dharapuram - Karur - Salem - Bangalore
2. Munnar - Chinnakanal - Theni - Periyakulam - Batlagundu - Dindigul - Salem - Bangalore.
I would not mind taking slightly longer route for better roads.

I like the route via Theni and Chinnakanal as long as you are driving day time. This route might be of thick fog at one or two places hence suggest as a morning route. Also, I heard some road widening work is in progress, may be someone can comment on the current situation.

[Waxeloquent]

Originally Posted by ksm

I like the route via Theni and Chinnakanal as long as you are driving day

As of 24 Oct, Theni-Bodi-Bodimettu-Chinnakanal was open only before 8am and after 6pm. Suggest you check that
out before taking that route.

Cheers

[kala]

Originally Posted by paulprv

If you do not mind narrower roads than the 4-lane, I have another route I can suggest:
Munnar - marayoor - Udumalpet - Coimbatore - Annur - Sathyamangalam - Dimbam - Chamraj nagar - Kollegal - Kanakapura - Bangalore
Except Coimbatore - Annur, the traffic is very low on this route, and it is a lovely drive. You can maintain 90-100km speed most of the way, adn it is a rather beautiful drive. Road condition is good and there are no tolls.

Originally Posted by rameshnanda

No need to go to Coimbatore too. Best route would be Udumalpet-Palladam-Avanashi-Sathyamangalam. Coimbatore traffic is best avoided.

Two ways to bypass Coimbatore, but both have small bottlenecks with 2-3 kms of rough roads.

1) Palladam-Avinashi-Sevur-Puliampatty-Sathy. Reports from @SureshS a couple of weeks ago indicates good roads, but a railway overbridge under construction somewhere just before Avinashi (Most probably at Vanjipalayam I'd think) forces you to go through a deviation with some bad roads.

2) Palladam-Karanampatti-Karumathampatti-Annur-Sathy. Here again there was a railway overbridge being constructed near Somanur and the associated deviations through bad roads is a minor issue.

But either of these bypasses should save you time overall. Unless it is between 10PM and 7AM, crossing Coimbatore can take quite a bit of time otherwise.

Originally Posted by ksm

I like the route via Theni and Chinnakanal as long as you are driving day time. This route might be of thick fog at one or two places hence suggest as a morning route. Also, I heard some road widening work is in progress, may be someone can comment on the current situation.

As per recent reports the Theni-Chinnakkanal road is still not open to traffic during daytime due to road work. So I think it'd be better to take the Marayoor route till that road gets fixed.

[amazer2013]

Thank you people, for your invaluable inputs. There has been unanimous discouragement for the Chinnakanal-Theni route from many on the forum. Also, some of my sources indicated that the route near Chamarajanagar and Kollegala are not good. Not too sure of this, so I have finalized the route as below:
Munnar - Marayoor - Udumalpet - Dharapuram - Karur - Salem - Bangalore
This way I can even avoid the bit of off-road deviation required in the Avinashi route. It might be a bit longer, but nonetheless reliable. I'm not very adventurous
I don't know the road condition between Udumalpet - Karur via Dharapuram, so any light on that will help.

Thanks

[ampere]

Originally Posted by amazer2013

Munnar - Marayoor - Udumalpet - Dharapuram - Karur - Salem - Bangalore
This way I can even avoid the bit of off-road deviation required in the Avinashi route. It might be a bit longer, but nonetheless reliable. I'm not very adventurous

Its good road. You can also do :

Dhapuram-Kangeyam-Peundurai-Salem

[kala]

Originally Posted by amazer2013

Also, some of my sources indicated that the route near Chamarajanagar and Kollegala are not good.

Yeah, some sources also tell me the same thing and advice me to avoid that route when I tell them I take NH209 on my trips to Wayanad. And when asked about whether they have driven on that route in the recent past, they say "No, but my friend drove on that route 4 years ago and the road was horrendous !"

Anyway that kind of an perception among the general public suits people who enjoy driving on that route very well. Can't even imagine how chaotic that road would get if even 10 % of the Ooty / Wayanad / Coimbatore / Cochin traffic on the conventional routes decide to switch to NH209 !!

[amazer2013]

Hello once again people,
There have been some change of plans and I'll have to include Thekkady also in my itinerary. Since many have expressed that road condition is bad on Munnar - Chinnakanal route, which is the next best route to reach Munnar from Thekkady?

[kala]

Originally Posted by amazer2013

Hello once again people,
There have been some change of plans and I'll have to include Thekkady also in my itinerary. Since many have expressed that road condition is bad on Munnar - Chinnakanal route, which is the next best route to reach Munnar from Thekkady?

I thought the work ongoing was only on the Bodimettu-Theni ghats section only ? In which case you should be OK - the route to Thekkady deviates from the Munnar Theni highway at Pooppara which is quite some distance before you reach Bodimettu.

I could be wrong here. I haven't travelled that way for quite a while now, so not sure about the road conditions even on the other stretch. But the impression I got from the messages here was that the problem with bad roads / ongoing construction was only further down on the NH.

[amazer2013]

Originally Posted by kala

I thought the work ongoing was only on the Bodimettu-Theni ghats section only ? In which case you should be OK - the route to Thekkady deviates from the Munnar Theni highway at Pooppara which is quite some distance before you reach Bodimettu.

I could be wrong here. I haven't travelled that way for quite a while now, so not sure about the road conditions even on the other stretch. But the impression I got from the messages here was that the problem with bad roads / ongoing construction was only further down on the NH.

Thanks Kala. Can I get confirmation from someone who has driven this route recently?

[Waxeloquent]

Originally Posted by amazer2013

Thanks Kala. Can I get confirmation from someone who has driven this route recently?

Yes what Kala has said is right. At Pooppara you take the right fork to head to Udumbanchola- Nedumkandam en route to
Thekkady. The left is the one leading to Bodimettu and Bodi to Theni.

Cheers

[kala]

Originally Posted by Waxeloquent

Yes what Kala has said is right. At Pooppara you take the right fork to head to Udumbanchola- Nedumkandam en route to
Thekkady. The left is the one leading to Bodimettu and Bodi to Theni.

Hi - what I wasn't sure about was the condition of the road from Munnar to Thekkady via Pooppara (and whether there was any blockage between Pooppara and Munnar) since I haven't gone that way in the recent past.

Since you had travelled on that route recently you are probably the best person to clarify that. Would you suggest that road to get to Thekkady from Munnar or is some other route (say via Idukki / Kattappana) better ?